When our daughters were of school age we gave them a gift of a yeshiva education. Recognizing the enormous part that yeshiva education played in shaping their careers and their lives, our daughters gave their children the same gift. Baruch Hashem, the knowledge acquired through those years of being immersed in an educational culture shaped by Torah (but which also embraced secular studies) has enabled them to face the challenges of our society.
Parents of public school children should take another serious look at a day school education. The yeshiva of today, more often than not, offers exceptional Judaic studies, Hebrew language and general studies programs. Students develop an evocative bond to their Jewish heritage while shaping a resilient underpinning for an enduring commitment to am Yisrael.
Now that all of our children and grandchildren live in Israel, they are shielded, to a large extent, from all the maddening and bizarre manifestations of a society gone wild with its emphasis on sex, drugs and depravity. We are keenly aware that Israel is not immune from these elements, but as Torah-observant Jews we’re confident that our children and grandchildren will, be better prepared to confront these challenges as a result of the Torah education they received.
While it is important to ensure that all Jewish children who wish to attend yeshiva are able do so (in the face of rising costs and a weakened economy, this is a daunting task for many parents and yeshiva administrators), our most pressing challenge today goes far beyond ensuring the financial viability of yeshivot and the existing pool of students. As a people, we must recognize the scourge of apathy afflicting Jewish communities throughout America.
This disinterest is nothing less than a self-inflicted plague. It began when Jewish immigrants increasingly began to abandon their traditions, some for reasons of employment, others in an attempt to blend into the American scene. Whether for reasons of economics, indifference, or the impetus to assimilate into the mainstream, many of these immigrants sent their children to public schools.
As these children grew up, their only exposure to Jewish education was the afternoon “Talmud Torah” program – a failure by almost any standard. The products of the Talmud Torah programs, remembering their own unhappy experience, decided in many cases not to send their children to Talmud Torah at all. The result is inescapably clear: generations of Jews completely bereft of any meaningful Torah tradition. The once-valued and precious possession of a meaningful Jewish education was withheld from them by well-meaning parents who themselves were unfortunate victims of a disregard for tradition.
This casual approach to Jewish identity gave birth to the widespread assimilation and detachment that marks the “State of Judaism” in America today. With the possible exception of Israel, the same phenomenon appears to be true elsewhere in the world.
To some extent there has been an awakening – a result of outreach efforts by a number of outstanding organizations on college campuses and elsewhere. While most American Jews are complacent about Judaism, the success of these outreach programs is evidence that there is a thirst for Torah knowledge. Chabad, Hillel, National Jewish Outreach Program, Gateway, and others engaged in kiruv are to be applauded for their attempts to counter the detachment, lassitude and lethargy of so many unaffiliated Jews.
On the other hand, too many of us, including observant Jews, are simply indifferent. Sad to say, the attitude among all too many of us is marked by lack of interest, concern or enthusiasm for non-observant or unaffiliated Jews.
We must liberate ourselves from our apathy on the matter of Jewish survival. As a people we must change gears. We must abandon our subservience to those cultures that have trampled our Torah tradition. “Am Yisrael Chai” implies a commitment to observe Hashem’s mitzvot as He has exhorted us to. This means reaching out to the unaffiliated, to the not-yet- observant, with love and understanding.
Observant Jews must never adopt an aura of superiority. We must never consider ourselves “better” or greater, or a cut above those who are not affiliated or observant. They are not “inferior” because they attend a Conservative or Reform synagogue. We must not look down on them for sending their children to a Conservative or Reform day school. We must not to look down at them for sending their children to public schools.
We must reach out to them with genuine love and understanding. We should point out to them that the best place for a Jewish mind is a Torah-true day school. In such an educational environment, Judaic studies will shape their children’s future while enabling them to achieve academic excellence in general studies. Only thus will they be able to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
The goal of bringing them closer to Yiddishkeit cannot be achieved by casting aspersions on their Jewish integrity. Making statements maliciously calculated to damage their reputations will never bring them closer. Even harboring such feelings is a mistake. They are not second-class Jews by virtue of their affiliation with non-Orthodox synagogues.
Our task is to bring such Jews closer to Torah-true Judaism. For too long, the fabric of Jewish life has been torn by factionalism. Contentiousness and self-seeking agendas have mocked the very concept of Jewish unity.
Those of us who are serious about Jewish commitment should focus on how best to reach the unaffiliated. Every effort should be made, on a one-to-one basis, to explain to our unaffiliated coworkers and friends that a good yeshiva imparts academic excellence within a culture of Jewish values – and that in no time at all they will see their children brimming with self-confidence and at ease with their Jewish identity.
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